My name's Bob Carr. I'm the Foreign Minister of Australia.
I'm here in Kiribati [pronounced Kiribus] with the president of this small island country,
President Tong.
And what I'm looking at here is the living reality of climate change.
This is a village;
the tide rises...and floods it.
This did not happen in the past.
And it sends a message about what might happen to this nation of 100,000 people over six islands
should the temperature continue to warm
and the sea levels continue to rise.
The implications for the loss of arable land,
for the cost of proofing the territory against further ocean incursion is very real.
The cost of doing something about erosion is very real.
The loss of livelihood for fishing folk as a result of ocean acidification is also very real.
Here in Kiribati, as Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon found out on a recent visit,
climate change is the way people live now.
And what worries the President and worries his people is
what will happen to the freshwater supply of this country if the ocean continues to rise.
By some estimates, there's a view that there may only be two decades left
for this people that has occupied this land for perhaps 2,000 years.
They call it their home, this is where they fish, this is where they sustain their livelihood.
When I met a group of them earlier, the young people burst into song spontaneously.
They have a lively culture, a wonderful culture that has been part of this island group
for as long as we know.
It could be lost. They could be forced to migrate.
To pick up all their possessions from their traditional home and go somewhere else in the world.
A 100,000 people of Kiribati.
There is a huge message here for the rest of us.
A message about migration forced by climate change and rising ocean levels.
A message about implications for peace and security.
Australia asks the leadership of the world at the U.N. Security Council to think about these messages,
bearing in mind what the people of Kiribati are living with today.
May I just add to what Minister Carr has to say, that I think this is the message that
we have been trying to communicate to the rest of the international community.
But I think the fundamental message here is that climate change is not an issue
to be addressed only in the future, but for the people of this country we have the community leader here
and he has to contend with the high tides every single week.
And I think the message I've always been trying to communicate is,
we are not negotiating an issue there about an event that might happen in the future,
we are dealing with the daily challenges that we have to face.
We are, according to the predictions, as a nation, our very future and our very unique survival,
particularly with the younger generations, is very much at stake.
Your United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon came here
and he spoke to the community here,
and there was a young lady who asked a question:
"Mr. Secretary General, what can you do that would ensure our people's survival?"
And I think that this is the question that we are asking the international community
and I thank Minister Carr for taking this to the U.N. Security Council because it is a security issue
for those countries which are the most vulnerable on the continent. Thank you.
Please, give it a thought. We've been talking too much. I think we need a bit of action.
That's where we are.
We're witnessing what's been happening, what will continue to get worse.
Thank you. Do you want me to say anything else?